Our porter Min was also impressive, very strong and fast and always had a smile for us.
If you are looking for a trekking agency in Nepal this is the one to use and I would definitely recommend asking Kedar for your guide. And I would definitely chose this trek over the Everest base camp.It’s more challenging but 100% worth the extra effort

Then we met our guide at the airport, Rajendra Karki, who was vivacious and excited to meet us. He was genuine from the start. He was incredibly knowledgeable with over 10 years guiding experience, never faulting to answer my many questions regarding the trek to come.

Kathmandu and the city tour were okay, not really my cup of tea, but that’s just the way it goes visiting hindu and buddhist temples – they’re not for everyone. Meeting Chhatra was excellent! He was warm and accomodating and helped us replan our trek so we could add in Island Peak, whilst still maintaining an anti-clockwise route through the passes.

We arrived in Kathmandu for Holi Festival, which was a complete hoot! We did get partially “abducted” by a group of lightly intoxicated young blokes and walked a few km’s with them towards the main party in the square, but it was easy enough to indulge them and then politely depart. Never once did I feel unsafe.

The trekking itself started ominously for me, as I contracted a stomach bug on the night before we flew to lukla, and required the toilet 8 times before sunrise. Some immodium definitely helped here, and potentially would’ve improved me sooner had I read the instructions on dosage properly…anyway. I struggled from Lukla to Phakding because I was tired and refused to eat and drink. After a sleep and lots of encouragement from Raj to restore my strength, I had soup and more fluids and slowly became my usual self. By the time we were in Namche I was feely pretty good. Raj measured our pulse oximetery every night and I started off poor, around 84% at 3400m, but I improved to 86% or so by a few days time, at a higher elevation of 4000m. I think if I was well, I would’ve been more around 90+ per cent, which was what others in the trek were reading at Namche (3400m). On the way back down I was 96% at Namche!

We had an amazing time after this during the trek. We parted ways with some of our trekking companions as we all had different itineraries, and that had us separating after Dingboche. I definitely missed the crew for the rest of trip, but Raj and Bikraj (our porter) made for great company the whole way along. I was homesick for a few days wherein I became a bit narky, and it didn’t even phase Raj. He was polite and funny and gave space when I needed it. Granted, he was aways asking us to drink more and was disappointed in me every time I didn’t finish a meal – sorry Raj!

I have to admit, I had a poor appetite until we had finished the final pass and started to descend. I was eating, but I could’ve eaten more I think, if I had the appetite for it. AMS is an interesting thing – you really dont recognise it until you reflect on your day. Some days we would smash a pass without any harsh/rapid breathing, and other days it would absolutely smash you. The last pass, I kept frowning the whole way up, and expressed my anger to Raj because he kept saying “nearly there”, but it was an hour before we were actually “there”. Turns out he was right, but it just looked so damn far away! Again, sorry Raj!

Island peak, we had a different guide who took us from base camp, up and back. He was quite a poor guide compared to Raj, or any of the guides from Nepal Eco Adventure. He had poor English, no medical or first aid equipment, gave us relatively poor instruction on our rope work and failed to slow us down on the ascent. See it’s 1.30am, pitch black and you just walk up a mountain following the guide, using a headlamp… As a result, we developed serious AMS, could hardly catch our breath and I got stomach/wind pain and had to poo twice on the mountain (in -30deg celcius mind you). We made it to crampon point at around 5900m, at about 4am, which is far too fast. We decided to turn around because of how cold and ill we were. The guide also said it was another 4 hours to summit, but it was actually only about an hour, and wouldve been 3 he’s back down after that… but we didnt know this until we reached the base camp and clarified with him. Shame really, but just goes to show how important guides are if you are inexperienced with climbing and particularly, the signs of AMS. I’m a physiotherapist and I still had to do a lot of internal processing to identify if it was actually AMS or just malaise, etc. Also, if you do the island peak, make sure you ask for a pillow – turns out sleeping in a tent with nothing but a bottle of sunscreen for a pillow is really crummy.

All in all we had an amazing trip, and I strongly believe this was due to booking through this company with Chhatra and our guide Rajendra.

I will probably return to do Annapurna and Raj will be my first request. Also, disclosure to all who aren’t used to tipping, make sure you do tip generously. The guides only work for a few months of the year during “season”. Even though Chhatra pays his guides fairly compared to many other companies, it still is really vital to the prosperity of the guides.

Happy trekking!

Before the trek, Chhatra answered all our questions and was very helpful. Once we reached Kathmandu, we were picked up at the airport, and everything was great from there. We also arranged with Chhatra for the missing equipment such as warm sleeping bags.

Our guide Kul was extremely knowledgeable and professional, and our porter Ram was also amazing. Both of them were always ready to help, answer our questions, encourage us or share a good joke!

The trek itself is indeed very challenging, but if you prepare well and are in good physical and mental condition, you will be able to do it. It is extremely rewarding to reach the passes, and the scenery is remarkable. It’s amongst the best things we’ve seen in our lives!

Just bear in mind that nights in lodges are cold and not extremely confortable, but all the effort is definitely worth it.

Tu sum up: if you are looking for the perfect travel agency to organise your trek, do not look further and book with Nepal Eco Adventure! We are looking forward for another opportunity to go back to Nepal with them!